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The Gospel of Consumption

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  • The Gospel of Consumption

    PRIVATE CARS WERE RELATIVELY SCARCE in 1919 and horse-drawn conveyances were still common. In residential districts, electric streetlights had not yet replaced many of the old gaslights. And within the home, electricity remained largely a luxury item for the wealthy.

    Just ten years later things looked very different. Cars dominated the streets and most urban homes had electric lights, electric flat irons, and vacuum cleaners. In upper-middle-class houses, washing machines, refrigerators, toasters, curling irons, percolators, heating pads, and popcorn poppers were becoming commonplace. And although the first commercial radio station didn’t begin broadcasting until 1920, the American public, with an adult population of about 122 million people, bought 4,438,000 radios in the year 1929 alone.

    But despite the apparent tidal wave of new consumer goods and what appeared to be a healthy appetite for their consumption among the well-to-do, industrialists were worried. They feared that the frugal habits maintained by most American families would be difficult to break. Perhaps even more threatening was the fact that the industrial capacity for turning out goods seemed to be increasing at a pace greater than people’s sense that they needed them.
    The Gospel of Consumption | Orion magazine

    A very interesting esssay. So what do my fellow wabbits think about this?
    For Gallifrey! For Victory! For the end of time itself!!

  • #2
    While I do not agree with some of the more socialist ideas the author overlays the article with, I do feel that materialism and excessive consumption does produce a weaker, less moral population. Spartan conditions and living environment produce tougher individuals. It also produces more close knit families IMO. Materialistic parents spend more time working to purchase things than raising their children, who in turn are raised with a materialistic outlook. Neighbors don't talk to each other, much less know who they are.

    Work is not bad. The purpose of work defines it. Work for the sake of more material, non-essential goods is not a good thing, for the individual, the family, or society.
    http://groundpoundingtruth.com/

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    • #3
      What I took away from it was that we shouldnt forget why we put in those hours, its for family. So work life balance especially once one is married with kids is very important.
      For Gallifrey! For Victory! For the end of time itself!!

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      • #4
        Friends, I have no objection to expenditure toward aggrandizement in keeping with the greatest principles of Capitalism. In fact I am proud that our people are capable of such a standard of living as to make chronic poverty in its technical definition, virtually extinct for the last fifty years in the United States.

        Together with this love of blessings on my part comes the recognition of Job that : "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the Lord".

        Also, I hate wastage.
        Last edited by Ryan Bailey; 06 May 08,, 18:15. Reason: spelling
        "If we will not be governed by God then we will be ruled by tyrants" -William Penn

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